Surveying the view from Meg's Mount looking at the North Sea and the Scottish coastline to the north, Holy Island to the south, it is clear why Berwick-upon-Tweed is such a divided place.

It is the last English town before Scotland and changed allegiance repeatedly in medieval times. Berwick was LS Lowry's favourite holiday destination and the town hall clock is instantly recognisable from his oil painting of the view from the town's walls.

Some people are adamant they are English and their loyalty lies with Northumberland. Others feel an affinity to Scotland as they gaze enviously over the border wishing they had free prescriptions, lower university fees and a better system of financing care homes.

A few miles away at the border, a huge sign announcing Welcome to Scotland is pockmarked with stickers. On the English side, an equivalent sign disappeared one day – but it has a trio of flags fluttering in the wind.

At Adi's Diner on the Scottish side, Pat Wilson, from Whitley Bay, said she was fed up of hearing about the referendum debate. "I listen to local radio from Scotland. That's all they've been talking about for the last two weeks and I'm sick of it. I have the Scottish drivers talking about independence and the referendum, it's something they've been discussing for years and I can't see it happening. I just wish they'd get on with it."

She acknowledged that free prescriptions would be good, as would free university fees, but said she felt fundamentally English and wouldn't want Berwick to switch countries. "I'd move if it did."

Back in Berwick, estate agent Graham Hush, of Tyne and Tweed agents, was selling a pebble-dashed former council house for £85,000, whereas a four-bedroom cottage was £185,000. "I personally, as a business, would benefit if Berwick went back into Scotland," he said. "I think a lot of people in Berwick already think they're in Scotland. Just this morning I had somebody on the phone looking to move over the border because of the cost of healthcare in residential homes in England.

"We have buyers who comment that they want to buy in Scotland because of their family and they are probably thinking of university fees." He said he had not given the referendum debate much thought as he lived in England, was English and only stayed in Berwick during the week, returning home to the Northumberland village of Ponteland when not working.

Tom Young, 63, a retired British Gas worker wearing a red tartan scarf, said Berwick was "the forgotten area of Northumberland". He said that as far as finance was concerned, a lot of people looked to Scotland, rather than England, where "they are better off by around £1,100 to £1,200 a year".

"This is a border town," he said. "There's a feeling of abandonment and we don't like having to pay for parking, when it's free in places like Blyth." He said the Braveheart in him supported Scottish independence and he would vote for whichever side the SNP leader was on.

"Years ago, we always used to go shopping in Newcastle," he added. "But now we go north to Edinburgh, it's been a natural progression as the roads are so much better going north."

The town's Liberal Democrat MP, Sir Alan Beith, said he'd had a solitary email from a constituent on the issue. "It was from a Scot on the English side of the border asking why he can't get to vote on the referendum issue." He said he did not believe that the Scots would vote for independence in a referendum.

Karen Bloxham's son, Tom, is studying pharmacology at Aberdeen University and they have to pay his fees. Their youngest daughter is applying for university. "I think he feels it's unfair that a lot of his friends don't have to pay fees just because they went to school north of the border," she said.

Hairdresser Fiona McCaffer commutes from Edinburgh each day to run her business, the Ministry of Hair. "I seriously worry about independence because I can't see how it can work financially," she said. "Being on the border of England is something that a lot of my clients feel hacked off about. They feel they are being treated unfairly because of their postcode."

At the health food shop and gallery she took over 12 years ago, Jill Spence described herself as an incomer. "We have no idea what it would be like if Scotland has the referendum and votes for independence," she said. "It is too ethereal a debate. From a business point of view, who knows what would happen?

"At the moment, a lot of my customers are from over the border. Berwick is a strange place and it may feel like there's tumbleweed blowing through the town – it's like it is behind everywhere else, but I love it here."

Artist Jennifer More said: "It's better being Scottish. But then I'm biased because I'm Scottish and I live in Coldingham over the border."

Asked why she's shopping in England, she replied: "Because I'm 14 miles from Berwick, and Edinburgh's 47 miles the other way." She said Berwick had the worst of English and Scottish traits, a horrible accent and a chippiness that came from being a border town.

But she said: "I don't think free prescriptions will be around forever. It's like a blip and the Scottish government won't be able to afford it for ever. Why should people who can afford to pay for their prescriptions not do so?

"It's the same with education, I have two wee girls aged six and eight, and I can't imagine that university fees will be free when they are going to university."

She said the SNP argument about oil revenue staying in Scotland might have been relevant 30 years ago, but oil was dying off. "I wouldn't want to be devolved from England."

Another woman, who considers herself to be English, said Scotland should not separate from England as it was stronger being united. "Like with families, there's strength in unity," she said. What about Europe? "Well. Perhaps not in every case. But it's a very complex matter."

Tom Dillon, originally from Hull, runs Dillons furniture clearance shop. "I used to go into the newsagent's three times a week and after five years I was asked if I was having a good holiday. People here feel if you have not got the accent, then you are not Scottish.

"We know people who have one daughter at school over the border in Eyemouth and another at Berwick High. How is it fair that one gets their university fees paid and the other has to pay? Education should be free for all in my eyes."